Meson Sandwiches is a fast-casual restaurant chain that primarily sells sandwiches, salads and breakfast items, which it serves all day long. Based in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico El Meson Sandwiches is Puerto Rico's largest restaurant chain. In 2012 it was named one of the world's top fast food chains by Travel & Leisure magazine. El Meson Sandwiches is family owned and operated. It has 37 locations in Puerto Rico and three in Orlando, Florida which are in Florida Mall which opened in June 2015, Kissimmee, Lee Vista, Orlando Vineland Premium Outlets and Gardens on Millenia near The Mall at Millenia. The company planned to open four more locations in Orlando by 2017 including one in Kissimmee at The Crossing shopping center which opened by May 14, 2016. El Meson began franchising in 2018. El Meson Sandwiches units average $2 million in sales per year. System-wide sales in 2015 were just under $80 million.
Products
El Meson sandwiches are mostly served on criollo bread, a sweet, French-style bread with a Caribbean flavor. Most are pressed on a hot grill and served with cabbage, tomatoes, and mayo. The Delicioso sandwich comes with turkey and bacon. The White House is grilled with roast beef, turkey and mushrooms. El Meson also serves sandwiches on baked potatoes.
History
The first El Meson Sandwiches opened in 1972 in the beach town of Aguadilla on Puerto Rico's northwestern tip. The restaurant was started by Felipe Perez Sr., father of the current CEO, Felipe Pérez Grajales. The original restaurant was known primarily for two things: home-style sandwiches and a familial atmosphere. Many of El Meson's early customers were American surfers who came early in the day asking for big, healthy breakfasts. Their requests prompted Perez Sr. to create a sandwich dubbed The Surfer, which comes stuffed with fresh vegetables and soy-based protein. The second Puerto Rico location opened in 1987, shortly after the younger Perez returned from college in Jacksonville, Florida. Rapid growth followed.
About Felipe Pérez Grajales
Felipe Pérez Grajales is the current CEO of El Meson Sandwiches. He was born in 1965, the eldest of three brothers. From the early 1970s through his high school years, Grajales worked in the original El Meson restaurant in Aguadilla. In 1983 he left Puerto Rico to attend Jacksonville University. Though he received several offers from companies in the U.S., he returned to Puerto Rico in 1986 to help expand the family business. Grajales has been recognized as an outstanding businessman by Ernst & Young, the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce, the Sales & Marketing Executives Association, and the House of Representatives and Senate of Puerto Rico. He was president of the Organizing Committee for the XXI Central American and Caribbean Games in Mayagüez in 2010 and is president of the Mayagüez 2010 Foundation.
